The South African wine grape harvest is slightly larger than last year following a dry season and consumers can look forward to exceptional wines from the 2017 vintage.

The wine industry body VinPro says the 2017 harvest, that is at 1 425 283 tonnes 1.4% larger than in 2016, was initially expected to be smaller. “A decrease was expected due to the second consecutive very dry, hot season. However, cooler nights throughout the growing season and the absence of significant heatwaves during harvest time buffered the effect of the drought to some extent,” says Francois Viljoen, manager of VinPro’s viticulture consultation service.

The Swartland and Paarl regions obtained much larger crops following sharp declines in 2016. Robertson’s production was close to the record harvest in 2016, while Olifants River and Breedekloof increased somewhat following small crops last year. Slightly smaller yields were noted in the Northern Cape, Stellenbosch and Worcester and a much smaller harvest in the Klein Karoo.

Although higher rainfall brought some relief in certain regions, it was still very much below average and the warmer weather conditions required producers to manage water usage very closely.

Cape Town- The table grape industry provides over 29 000 direct jobs in the Western Cape each year.

About 65% of the total table grape production volumes in SA is generated in the Western Cape.

These figures were shared at the South Africa Table Grape Industry’s annual general meeting.

In 2014/2015, R183m in income was generated on farms with black ownership and 660 black beneficiaries are involved in 32 farming businesses countrywide. The industry provides 11 000 full-time and 42 000 seasonal jobs valued at R950m in wages per year nationally.

The industry makes a significant contribution to downstream production income – R3.2bn to other product input providers, R720m to packaging material suppliers and R250m to logistics suppliers. The industry’s contribution towards SA’s gross domestic product (GDP) is estimated at over R3bn.